Vol. XXV. No. 3.] 
POPULAE SCIENCE NEWS. 
3» 
batic exhibition that is unsurpassed anywhere; 
and, secondly, he is supposed to be a steady con- 
sumer of microbes, — those invisible horrors which 
fill the air with danger to man, — a benefit so ines- 
timable that, though it fails to do so, it should 
serve to dwarf and render pardonable in our eyes 
all his puny teasings. 
A favorite field for the display of his agility is 
the window, where he amuses himself by the hour 
in alternately walking over the panes and buzzing 
up and down them. How does he do it? How 
I ^^ accomplish the walking? How manage to cling 
^P to that smooth and slippery surface? or, still more 
1^" marvellous, to move fairly upside down upon the 
ceiling? Does anyone surely know? Men of sci- 
ence have made a study of it — have spent weary 
days and years in attempting to solve the prob- 
lem. Each has had his theory. There have been 
plausible conjectures ; sure discoveries made, only 
to be afterwaids proved mistaken. Tlie latest — 
and just now it is very well received— is, that the 
hairs, which thickly cover the membranous discs 
of the fly's foot, themselves terminate in minute 
discs. These exert a power of suction, which, by 
means of their number, becomes sufficient to sup- 
port the weight of the fly, while at the moment 
the suction is exerted a fluid exudes from the hair 
discs which adds to their adhesive power. This 
may prove to be the true explanation of a phe- 
nomenon that has baffled clever men. 
At the approach of cold the swarms of flies 
rapidly diminish in numbers. A curious disease 
seems to be borne to them upon the wings of the 
chilling autumnal wind. Instinctively they crowd 
within the shelter of our warmest rooms ; but 
even this fails to save their lives, and they die 
clinging to walls, window-panes, and draperies in 
the attitudes of life, but with bloated abdomens, 
ringed with white, and distended to deformity. 
Others, free from this disease, but enfeebled and 
grown stiff by reason of the cold, are destroyed 
and eaten in great numbers by other insects and 
by birds. There are still, however, a good many 
left to hibernate in corners of our homes, and to 
appear again after their winter's sleep on the first 
sunny days of early spring. They are somewhat 
rusty and very clumsy, it is true, at first; but 
Boon, by dint of brushing and pluming them- 
selves, they acquire once more an air of youth; 
and, following in its train, seems to come to them 
a great amount of bustling energy, which they 
display by buzzing here and there in search of 
food, or in greedily sucldng away at such stray 
morsels as they may be fortunate enough to come 
upon. 
But it is not alone that she may eat, drink, and 
make merry that the life of Madame Fly has been 
preserved through all the dreary days of cold. A 
great responsibility has been given her ; she has a 
duty to perfoi-m upon which depends the future 
of her race — and she will not faU. Faithful to 
her earliest associations she seeks for some mass 
of filth, — a pile of decaying vegetable matter, or, 
still better, a dung heap, suits her taste or needs, 
— and here she proceeds to deposit her eggs. 
While choosing for them a nest so noisome, she 
places her seventy, eighty, or ninety eggs with a 
precision and orderly array that is truly beautiful ; 
— then leaves them to the heat of the sun and the 
kindly care of Mother Xature. Time shows her 
trust to have been not misplaced ; the result- 
ing supply proves ever unfailing, and even more 
abundant than is necessary to satisfy our fullest 
desires. 
«♦* 
One volt of electromotive force is generated for 
every 100,000,000 lines of force cut per second. 
[Original In Populak Science NEWi.J 
PREMOXITIONS, COIJfCIDEXCES, AND 
SUPERSTITIOXS. 
BY M. J. GORTON. 
Nobody can fully explain the states of his own 
inner consciousness, or tell the reasons why, 
when in apparent good health, the atmosphere is 
luminous with transcendental glory, and anon is 
shadowed by dimly comprehended spectres. Many 
individuals have strangely recurrent coincidences 
or presentiments, which, considered abstractly, 
are — whether fore-warnings of good or of evil — so 
frequently fulfilled that it is difficult to assume 
them to be casualties only. Science, however, is 
dumb in explaining the rationale of such phenom- 
ena. There are times and seasons when the entire 
firmament is rose colored ; and then, without any 
apparent reason, the heavens are overcast, and 
we eacli learn this lesson anew that the cause of 
our sorrows, discomforts, and misfortunes lies 
deep in the nature of things. Perhaps this is one 
reason why we pay attention to mystical fore- 
casts, and there seems to spring into existence, 
"the prophetic soul of the wide world dreaming 
on things to come." 
It is customary to say it is lucky to do a certain 
act at a certain time ; it is unlucky to do certain 
things, or to leave undone this, that, or the other 
thing. If logically traced to the source from 
which such observations sprang, it is found all 
such superstitions are based on the law of coin- 
cidences. Take an individual in a slightly morbid 
or reflective state, and the dark side of human 
aff"airs thrusts itself upon his notice, — the tyranny 
of the strong towards the weak, the cruelty 
abounding in nature, the transitoriness of all hu- 
man affairs; — and let a number of coincidences 
occur bearing upon some one of these subjects 
of thought, and a superstition is founded, which 
may be transmitted and become perpetuated from 
generation to generation. 
Many persons reject and ridicule the common 
superstitions found to exist quite as much among 
the intelligent as in the every-day life of the com- 
mon people. 'ITie individual who sits at the table 
making the company thirteen, will laugh and jest 
at the timorous anxiety of his hostess, who had — 
previous to his unexpected arrival — been to con- 
siderable trouble to avoid such a casualty; but 
will feel uncanny if he spill the contents of the 
salt jar accidentally, and will hasten to burn some 
immediately, to ward oft" any evil effects which 
might otherwise occur in his business relations; 
or he will pass some anxious moments if he ob- 
serves the new moon over his left shoulder, instead 
of his right ; nor will he undertake anything im- 
portant on Friday. Many persons who pride 
themselves on being proof against the folly of 
superstition, yet feel uneasy if they do not ob- 
serve the rules governing tliis bit of unreason in 
other people. Scientific scholars who have rear- 
soned from effect to cause, who have accepted 
the fact that matter and force are indestructi- 
ble, — such minds may be observed to be in- 
fluenced by the good will of Pussy, she having 
since the days of the Egyptians traditionally 
brought good luck to the house of her choosing; 
while the breaking of a mirror is supposed to 
bring misfortune seven years long to the unlucky 
possessor. 
The negro and Indian races are very supersti- 
tious ; their comings and goings, their up-risings 
and down-sittings, are governed by a series of 
invisible laws that would render life one long 
nightmare to a more sensitive and highly trained 
intellectual race. Among the negroes, after death 
the soul of the dead is supposed to be hovering 
around, and many devices are resorted to to ap- 
pease the ghost, and to appease the ill will that 
may have been awakened by lack of reverence to 
the living and unseen portion of the departed in 
the handling of the dead. Still, if any person has 
a blemish — is lame, sick, bruised, or sore — he will 
not touch the dead, as his ailment is thereby ren- 
dered incurable; indeed, anyone who assists in 
caring for the body of a deceased person will be 
sure to carry away something belonging to the 
deceased, to insure him against visits from the 
"duppy," or ghost. The flight of certain birds 
over the house and back again, indicates a sudden 
death in the family. The beautiful turtle-dove, 
from the plaintiveness of its note, is looked upon 
as a token of evil omen, foretelling serious mis- 
fortune or death if it lights upon the house. No 
"duppy" ever visits the living with good intent, 
but always to work harm. There are certain 
plants and trees given exclusively to be the habi- 
tation of the ghosts, and no negro will pass or 
handle one of the bewitched specimens of vegeta- 
tion. The practice of dancing about the corpse is 
out of fear of vengeance to be now paid to any 
person from the ghost, as no one can make the 
circle who did harm (i. e., administered poison) to 
tile deceased, as he would, if guilty, surely fall 
into convulsions and die miserably. Occult meth- 
ods of obtaining poison from plants and deadly 
snakes obtain, and may be administered so as to 
defy discovery ; hence this disgusting practice of 
the dance of the death circle. Remedies are pre- 
scribed of so simple a nature that if no good is 
done no harm can follow. Tying knots in a bit 
of woollen yarn, a knot for each wart, walking 
backward, muttering "de spiruts done settle 
down," with the knotted string held in the hand 
till near the fire, then rubbing the knots until 
slowly consumed, will cure the warts. A similar 
formula over a bit of wet paper plastered on the 
chest will cure hiccoughs. The hand of a dead 
person slowly rubbed over sore eyes, with the 
same formula, only "de spiruts done walk ober" 
added, is a sure cure. Nails can be conjured from 
the joints of rheumatic patients by repeating a 
charm, and whooping-cough cured by placing the 
child under a charm. The faculty for seeing 
" duppies " is given to those persons who at birth 
had a caul over the face. This membrane is 
treasured by the family with much care, as the 
possession brings good fortune and the power to 
foretell coming events. 
The Indians are quite as superstitious as the 
negroes, but they are a much more reserved and 
unsocial race, so it is much more diflicult to ascer- 
tain the legends and explanations for their curious 
rites. An Indian will turn from his course and 
vary to the right or to the left without any ex- 
plainable reason, apparently; he has come to a 
marching column of migrating ants, and has 
turned to one side to avoid crossing the route 
travelled by them. The worst of disasters would 
be drawn down on the unlucky mortal who failed 
to observe this rule. Birds are credited with hav- 
ing supernatural powers. The rain-crake, with its 
unearthly and melancholy cry, is a very prophet 
of. evil. They are popularly thought to be the 
spirits of the departed come back to mourn and 
avenge injuries done to them in life. Eating to- 
gether constitutes a sort of kinship, and he who 
breaks the bond will be detected by the ticking of 
a certain beetle. The neighing of a horse when 
you meet a stranger betokens trouble. To have a 
crow cross your path, flying over head, is a sure 
forerunner of sickness and death. 
Most of these superstitious can be read by the 
